This sums up my view on illegal immigration...

Let's see what it'd be like if the tables were turned...

I got this and liked it so much I thought I'd post it here:

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Dear Mr. President Obama, U. S. Senate and Congress:

I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for our health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. We are planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico , and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements..

We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here.

So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that we are on our way over? Please let him know that We will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for the entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services we might need, whether we use them or not.

3. All Mexico government forms, printed in Spanish, need to also be printed in English.

4. I want our kids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.

5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag pole at their school.

7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. My husband and I will need a local Mexican driver's license so we can get easy access to government services.

9. We do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but, we don't plan to purchase car insurance, and we probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave us alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put U S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. We would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business we may start.

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say a critical thing about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

Thank you so much for your kind help.

Sincerely, U.S. Citizen & Taxpayer
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Are outings worth it?

Emily had only one week left off track so I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Treehouse Museum. We spent about three hours there. That was a tough three hours!

Upon arriving Josh and Emily immediately ran to play while I paid admission. Josh went straight for the train tables. There were some new exhibits and fun things to try, Emily and Laurie really had fun doing everything. Josh would not leave the train tables. If I tried to force him he would scream. I decided that I would go around the museum with the girls and check on him every now and then. To my surprise he did leave the tables…but he left because he had peed his pants. I didn’t have anything else for him to wear and out of desperation I put one of Laurie’s diapers on him and left him in the bathroom while I tried to get help. The workers were very helpful and found me some overalls from the farm exhibit that he could wear while they put his pants in a dryer they had. He again went back to the tables after about 15 minutes in the bathroom. I kept an eye on him, and found out that he was having trouble sharing the trains. I took him screaming from the area and ended up having to put him in time out. I couldn’t believe that I paid money so that he could play with trains for three hours.

Emily and Laurie had a great time. Laurie loved the chalk and slates in the little school room. Emily loved the Art Garden, where we made sea serpents out of clay, and the western exhibit where she could sit on a horse and dress up like a cowgirl.

Destroyed In Under 10 Minutes

What happens when you put a letter/alphabet foam pad in the same room as an 18 month old toddler?

Well, curiosity gets the best of the toddler (our Laurie), and, well, take a look & see how it went...


Here's the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk267Z1Rq9c

Needless to say, she had the time of her life..
-Graydon

My Local Town Hall Meeting

I had the chance to go to a town hall meeting with my local congressman Rob Bishop.

I was really curious how it would turn out because there are so many issues currently going on in Congress. Health care reform being the biggest.

The event was held at the Layton City Council chambers in Layton, UT.
The room's maximum capacity is 190.
There were easily double that number of people that showed up.
Can you say Standing Room Only?

I was really curious to see how this one would turn out because of how others in the nation have gone. Ours was very civil, very well run, and actually ended on time. You'd think our Congressman was a school teacher in his past life, or something (he's a retired educator from Utah).

Before he started, he said, "Now, I promise not to answer my cell phone while you're asking a question." And then he said, "If you don't call me a Nazi, I won't call you a dining room table" referring to how other Congressmen had been handling some of their town hall meetings.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with how he handled the meeting. Most of the questions obviously were around health care. His stand is that he opposes the current bill being brought for (he said there's actually 4 of them being brought forward), but did say that there's also an alternative bill by a congressman from Arizona that is slightly different. It basically gives people several more options for health care, but doesn't mandate government control over it.

One issue that he brought up that was almost chilling is the level to which the Obama administration is scrapping the US Military. He said that at current only 187 F-22 fighters are going to be approved to be built. To maintain the current needs, 254 should have been allotted and to maintain US Air Supremacy, well over 500 should have been built. At 254, that only gives our military the ability to fight a war front on a single front. Every war we've had (Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) has included multiple war fronts. So basically, if we go to war with another nation (Iran, Korea, etc) and had to fight in the air, we'll only have enough planes to fight on a single front.

Another scary thing he brought up was that the Obama administration is trying to cut back on our missile defense system. Instead of having over 100 warheads ready to help protect our nation in the event of an attack, the number has been whittled down to 44. However, the current administration wants to knock those back even further.

If we were to have an attack on the US from hostile countries, we only have 44 chances to stop incoming missiles.

Several individuals who own small businesses also spoke up and asked about the Stimulus package and how it's not actually helping them get loans or keep their businesses functioning.

One highlight of the night was when one gentleman made a comment about how the government felt a need to intervene in the housing market over the last few years by mandating that banks must issue sub-prime loans, to which the commenter replied "and we can all see how well THAT went!" His basic jist was, "Don't mess with health care right now, we saw how well the housing market turned out".

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing a town hall first hand. There were no rowdy participants nor was there any yelling or heated emotions. His biggest overriding comment was that if you have something to say, by all means contact your congressman. Write them! Email them! Call them! Just participate! If you don't like what's going on, write! It's your freedom and right to do so.

If you have a chance to participate in a meeting near you, I'd encourage you to do so. It will give you the ability to see democracy in action. I really enjoyed it.

Laurie's Antics

Laurie loves to play in my silverware. She makes such a mess, that sometimes I have to re-wash everything. Most of the time everything ends up on the counter, but she also carries them everywhere in the house. This day, if you'll excuse the clutter, I was preserving tomatoes and was able to grab this video clip. It is a little long, but cute.

New Glasses

Monday we received a notice from the school that Emily had failed the eye exam and needed to see an eye doctor. She went to the eye doctor that afternoon and now has a new pair of glasses.

She was very excited. Her prescription was a -2, we had no idea that her eyes were that bad. She now carries the case with her everywhere in case she needs/wants to take them off (which she has done a lot today).